Kids in the Kitchen---Jell-O Playdough

 Grace wanted to do some cooking, so I thought some Jell-o playdough would be the perfect recipe for her.

You need:

1 cup flour

1/2 cup salt

1 cup warm water

2 Tbls cream of tartar

2 Tbls vegetable oil

1 box 3oz. jello

 Mix all the ingredients in a saucepan.

 Mix everything together

 Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until

 the playdough thickens and pulls away from the sides of the pan.

 As the playdough cools, knead it until nice and smooth.

 Wonderful job, Grace!  And it smells delicious!!



Kids in the Kitchen--Painted Bread Art

Amy found this activity for Luke and Kim.  Painted toast.

All you need is:

milk

food coloring

small jars or cups

bread

a toaster

 new, cheap paintbrushes

 We put about one inch of milk into each jar and then added 4 or 5 drops of food coloring.

 Mix up your milk and food coloring...I love the pastel color of the milk.

 Start painting a design or picture on a piece of bread...being careful not to "soak" the bread in any one spot.

Luke chose to write his name.

 Put in the toaster on a medium setting.

 Kimmy's masterpiece before toasting.

 Kimmy's masterpiece after toasting....I love how the colors stand out on the toast.

 The toast was still tasty slathered in butter!

 Amy wanted to join the fun and since it was her idea, taadaa,

Amy's finished flower.

Kids in the Kitchen--Cinnamon Sugarplums

 It's that time of the week.  The time to enjoy a good book and then make a yummy treat.

This week's book is The Cookie-Store Cat. It's the story of a cat that lives in a bakery and enjoys the easy lifestyle that comes from being loved by the bakers and neighborhood children.

There are quite a few recipes in the back of the book.

We made Cinnamon Sugarplums, and they were absolutely delicious...light and fluffy and gobbled up quickly in this house.  This recipe is going into our regular rotation of cookie recipes. 

 2/3 cup butter, soft

3/4 cup sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

1 egg

4 tsp. milk

1 and 1/2 cup flour

1 and 1/2 tsp. baking POWDER

1/4 tsp. salt

cinnamon sugar

 Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

Cream together the butter, sugar and vanilla

 Add the egg and beat until fluffy.

Luke cracked his first egg and he did a perfect job.

 He wasn't so happy about the egg on his fingers after his great success.

Stir is milk.

 Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt.  Kim is using a whisk to sift our ingredients. (That's how we sift around here)

Drop by a teaspoon scoop onto your cookie sheet.

 Sprinkle the cookie dough with cinnamon and sugar.

 Bake at 375 degrees for about 10 minutes.

These cookies are delicious...light and fluffy and with the cinnamon and sugar they remind me of snickerdoodles but are  much more soft.

This recipe will need to be doubled the next time we make them, because everyone was home and they were all gone within an hour of baking!

Cay is hosting a Picture Perfect Potluck...sharing picture books and cooking in the kitchen.

Head on over and join the fun.

Kids in the Kitchen-Magic Monkey Bananas

Cay from Cajun Cottage Under the Oaks   wrote one of my most used books: A Picture Perfect Childhood.  It is a book full of gems of wisdom, concerning all sorts of picture books for both the young and old.  One section is called "Let's Get Cooking with Literature"...and that is just what I am doing along with my "Kids in the Kitchen" posts. 

This summer we will read picture books and make family fun  (and recipes) from assorted books.

 Our first book was No More Cookies!  It is a very cute book about a mom who tells her daughter (and her monkey) No More Cookies!  But she does suprise them with Magic Monkey Bananas.  The recipe is in the back of the book.

 All you need is:

 bananas (firm)

popsicle sticks

chocolate (to coat the bananas-I used chocolate almond bark)

sprinkles

 Do not chew on the chocolate like this.

 Peel the bananas and cut in half

 Put a popsicle stick into the bananas

 Carefully melt the chocolate

 Dip the bananas into the chocolate.  We had to also spoon some chocolate onto the bananas.

 Roll your bananas in the sprinkles.

 We laid our magic monkey bananas on parchment paper.

Place in the freezer for at least two hours.

 Remove from freezer and enjoy.

Kids in the Kitchen: Patriotic Popsicles

It has been a long time since I have posted a "Kids in the Kitchen" post.  This past week I was encouraged to jump back into things and plan on a Kids in the Kitchen post once a week.

Hopefully I can keep up.  (Thanks for the encouragement, Diane) 

This week, in honor of the upcoming 4th of July, we decided to make patriotic popsicles.

I found the idea on the Family Fun website.

 For these popsicles you need:

blue kool aid (and sugar)

red kool aid (and sugar)

vanilla yogurt

Cool whip

plastic cups

craft sticks

 Make up the blue Kool aid.

This is the first layer in your cup.

 Clear cups make is more fun, as you watch your patriotic progress.

 As we proceeded with this, I realized we added too much "blue" to our popsicles. About an inch of each layer would be plenty.

Put this blue layer in the freezer for about an hour--until it is beginning to freeze, but not yet hard.

 For the white layer, mix about 1 cup vanilla yogurt and 1 cup whipped topping.

 This is a very yummy, white layer.

 Spoon the yogurt mixture onto the blue, semi frozen blue kool aid.

 Add the craft sticks at this time.

 We are able to place the sticks all the way to the bottom of the cup.

Freeze this layer until solid. (The yogurt never got completely hard--but was very firm when we added the red layer.)

Pour red Kool aid over the yogurt layer....this completes our patriotic popsicles.

I froze these overnight.

 To remove popsicles from the cups, we simply held them in our hands for a few minutes (it also was very hot outside)  and them they "popped" out of the cups.

Enjoy!!!